Stan Lee, who is the guest of honor the second annual Denver Comic Con, has learned a thing or two over the years about what sticks. (Photo by Reed Saxon)

NOTE: Bad news, true believers. Stan Lee has canceled as the guest of honor at the Denver Comic Con this year, so we had to pull our print interview with him (slated to run in this Sunday’s Denver Post’s A&E section). However, seeing as he’s Stan Lee and all, we figured it was still worth running the full interview online.

By any sane, human standard, Stan Lee should have lost his verve for the entertainment business decades ago. Then again, Stan Lee rarely lives in the realm of those either sane or human.

The 90-year-old former president and chairman of Marvel Comics was a fixture on the comic-book convention circuit long before many of its attendees were born. And while it’s all fun and games to many fans, it’s also now a multibillion dollar global industry with huge corporate stakes — and nasty copyright battles.

Lee keeps mum on the legal stuff, but even if he doesn’t call the shots at Marvel anymore, the co-creator of Spider Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Thor says he hasn’t lost any of the excitement or optimism he has for the creative side of the industry.

“It’s because I love what I do,” Lee said over the phone recently. “I love talking to the fans and I love being in those little movies and doing those cameos.”